Celebrating 97th Academy Awards With 5 Critically-Acclaimed Movies
Another year of celebrating filmmaking excellence! Marking the end of awards season is the Oscars, happening on 2 March 2025 (7 p.m. Eastern Time). This year, a whopping 10 films are up for the biggest prize of the night — Best Picture. Currently, narco-musical Emilia Pérez leads the race with 13 nominations, followed closely behind by Wicked and The Brutalist with 10 nominations. For the first time in her long career in Hollywood, Demi Moore has also received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in the body-horror thriller The Substance. Of course, with the announcement of the nominees, there’s been no shortage of drama—from social media slip-ups by some nominees, to debates about the use of generative AI in filmmaking.
In celebration of the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony, CinemaWorld brings you a curation of Best International Feature Film submissions from around the world and brilliant performances of Oscar-winning cast.
OPEN DOOR
ALBANIA / KOSOVO
Tensions run high in this road trip movie, which is also Albania’s Official Submission to the Oscars ‘Best International Feature Film’ Category of the 93rd Academy Awards — Open Door. Rudina and her unmarried pregnant sister, Elma, are running out of time as they cannot find someone to play Elma’s husband. How will they face their traditional father by the time they arrive back home? A poignant movie that celebrates the highs and lows of sisterhood - add Open Door to your International Women’s Day Watchlist.
TRAIN DRIVER’S DIARY
SERBIA / CROATIA
Serbia’s shot at the 89th Oscars’ Best International Feature Film is this delicious dark comedy — Train Driver’s Diary. The film follows a 60-year-old train driver, Ilija, who holds an infamous record of 28 kills over the span of his career. His adopted son, Sima looks up to him, but has one issue — he is terrified of becoming an accidental killer on the tracks. Ilja has an unconventional solution: he goes on a search for suicidal people to jump under Sima’s train. One of CinemaWorld’s crowd favourite movies of 2024 makes a comeback this Awards Season, don’t miss it!
THE DEEP
ICELAND
How long can a human survive in frigid waters out in the open sea? 6 hours, for this fisherman, who was a miracle survivor of a shipwreck that wiped out his entire crew. Based on a true story of a shipwreck off the coast of Iceland in 1984, The Deep stunned critics with 12 nominations at the Edda Awards and was shortlisted for the 2013 Oscars’ Best International Feature Film. A film that spotlights the indomitable human spirit and media sensationalism, catch The Deep playing on CinemaWorld this March.
THE CUBAN
CANADA
Featuring the Oscars’ first African-American Best Supporting Actor, the late Louis Gossett Jr, Oscars-nominated and Emmy-winning Shohreh Aghdashloo and the highly-decorated Oscars-nominated production team, The Cuban gathers the best of acting and music in an homage to jazz. An unexpected friendship begins between an elderly Cuban musician (Louis Gossett Jr) with dementia who is brought out of his shell by his care worker, and a disillusioned young pre-med Afghan student named Mina (Ana Golja). Through a shared love of music, both their lives are changed.
A THOUSAND TIMES GOOD NIGHT
NORWAY / IRELAND
Rebecca is one of the world's top war photographers. On one of her assignments photographing a female suicide bomber group, she gets heavily injured. She is given an ultimatum to choose between her family or her dangerous work. Starring Oscars winner, Juliette Binoche, A Thousand Times Good Night is inspired by the director’s experiences as a war photographer.
With the aim of celebrating acclaimed movies beyond the mainstream, CinemaWorld’s curation hopes to spotlight outstanding and lesser known narratives from around the world.
Find the showtimes of our Oscars curation in our March 2025 Schedule.
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